SEVASTOPOL, January 31. /TASS/. Naval groups of the Black Sea Fleet’s combat ships returned to their home bases on the Crimean Peninsula and in Novorossiysk after large-scale drills in the Black Sea, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.
"At naval combat training ranges, the crews of warships operating as part of combined arms and specific-type tactical groups accomplished combat training tasks of engaging in a sea battle and holding artillery fire against the targets simulating the hypothetical enemy’s warships and air attack weapons," the press office said in a statement.
The warships’ crews held communications, ship damage control, air defense, and anti-submarine warfare drills along with an exercise of anti-sabotage defense for ships during the anchorage in an unsafe roadstead and in transit by sea, the press office specified.
After carrying out planned maintenance measures and replenishing inventories, the crews of the Black Sea Fleet’s ships will continue accomplishing assigned missions. The scheduled maneuvers of the Black Sea Fleet’s forces that came to an end involved over 20 combat ships of various classes, in particular, frigates, guard ships, missile corvettes, and missile boats, amphibious assault ships, small anti-submarine warfare ships, and also mine countermeasure ships," the statement reads.
In compliance with the 2022 plan of the Russian Armed Forces’ training, a series of naval drills are being held in January-February this year in all the areas of responsibility of the Navy’s fleets under the general command of the Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov.
The naval maneuvers will focus on measures by the Navy and the Aerospace Force to protect Russia’s national interests in the World Ocean and counter military threats to Russia from the direction of seas and oceans.
The drills will cover the seas adjacent to Russian territory and also operationally important areas of the World Ocean. Separate drills will run in the Mediterranean, North, and Okhotsk Seas, in the northeastern Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.
Overall, the massive drills will bring together over 140 warships and support vessels, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 items of military hardware, and about 10,000 troops.